TI Spins Motors in Minutes with Sensorless, Brushless DC Motor Drivers

Texas Instruments Incorporated (TI) had added two 3-phase, brushless DC (BLDC) motor drivers that allow designers to spin motors in minutes rather than months. Traditional BLDC motor designs require five to 10 components, along with firmware. The sensorless 5-V, 680-mA DRV10866 and the 12-V, 1.5-A DRV11873 cuts this component count to one with no firmware required, significantly reducing board space and system costs, while helping customers speed their time to market. The devices also provide the lowest operating voltage and standby current to reduce power consumption by up to 75 percent.

Key features and benefits of the DRV10866 and DRV11873 include: Single motor driver eliminates the need for external gate drivers, inverters, position detection and feedback, along with a microcontroller (MCU) and firmware, to cut board space, system cost and development time. Spins motors in minutes: Utilizes TI InstaSPIN-FAN motor solutionsâ„¢, a fully protected robust solution with no coding and very few external components needed to get motors spinning.

The new devices also feature a wide operating voltage range of 1.65 V to 5.5 V and low quiescent current of 5 uA extends the battery life of portable devices, such as toothbrushes and shavers, compared to existing solutions. They can be combined with a TI MSP430â„¢ MCU for designs requiring user interface and closed-loop speed control. And they include advanced on-chip protection, including over-current, over-temperature, shoot-through and under-voltage lock-out, increases system reliability.

In addition to the motor driver, the DRV10866EVM and DRV11873EVM evaluation modules (EVMs) include a simple TLC555 timer, frequency generator output, PWM input and motor connection to enable fast, code-free motor evaluation. Both EVMs ship with schematics and gerber files for a suggested retail price of US$25.

The DRV10866 and DRV11837 are available today in a 3-mm by 3-mm SON package for a suggested retail price of $0.39 and 16-pin TSSOP for suggested retail price of $0.89, respectively, in 1,000-unit quantities.